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Nynäshamn – Visby crossing

Favourable winds were forecasted for the night between Friday and Saturday, so we decided to make a night passage to Gotland. In the evening, the wind was blowing from SW at 7 m/s (or 14 knots), but it was forecasted to veer to west later in the evening and further to north during the following day. Thus, we cast off around 7 pm from Nynäshamn and sailed the first few hours close hauled. Around 11 pm, the wind veered – as forecasted – to west and increased to about 10–11 m/s (20 kts). Thus, we took the first reef in the main and reeded the genoa a couple of turns. With this sail setup the speed rarely dropped under 6 knots. As I was still curing my flu, I tried to stay behind the sprayhood as much as possible and let the windpilot take care of the steering: it kept a steady course almost all the way to Visby.

Sun setting behind the Öja island

We arrived in Visby at 10 o'clock in the Saturday morning after a 14,5 hours' and 80 nm leg. First the inner harbour appeared to be almost full, but then we saw a boat leaving and freeing a good berth so we managed to get that one. If the inner harbour is full, there are more berths at breakwater, but those are further away from the city centrum and the servicehouse. This area is also less lively so it is preferred by many.

On Sunday we rented a car and made a road trip to Fårö island, but more about that later...

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Time flies when you are having fun – we have enjoyed sailing our beloved Hallberg-Rassy 29 “Dolphin Dance” for eight seasons since 2010. She has always taken a good care of us on our trips to Norway, Swedish West Coast, Denmark, The High Coast (Höga Kusten), Estonia, Stockholm Archipelago, Mälaren, Åland Islands and on our home waters in Finland.

Now it is time for us to move on to new adventures with a slightly bigger boat, so we need to find a new home for her. We will let you know about our future plans later on, but now we need your help. Thank you in advance, if you forward this information to someone who might be interested in taking care of her in the future!
If you want to sail this beauty in the future, please contact us through e-mail, our Facebook-page or Instagram-account. You can find our sales ad both in English and in Finnish. In this blog, you can find a lot of information, photos and videos about the boat and find out what kind of sailing journeys we have made with …

When I was a kid, one of my favourite hobbies in summer was to cycle to a local harbour to check out the boats, that were mooring there. I was especially fond of sailing yachts that looked capable of handling the most demanding offshore conditions. I was also a keen reader of boating magazines and sailing books, and many of these were dog-eared from heavy usage. Once I happened to come across an article on the Swan 40 (Germán Frers' -design), which became my ultimate dream boat.

Not too much has changed in twenty years, since I still love to check out sail boats in the harbours and boat shows or read about them on magazines, books and blogs. However, the criteria for the 'perfect boat' has perhaps evolved a bit during these years. For example, I still consider the Swan 40 a great yacht, but I wouldn't consider her an optimal choice for shorthanded sailing. Especially, if taking into account the price and yearly maintenance costs.

On Friday evening we left Lillesand and took a course towards Denmark. On the coast of Norway there was strong SW-going current which pushed us too much south. The wind and the current eased during the evening and we motored about three hours in quite large swell. Later, around 10 pm, the wind changed to SW and increased so we could start sailing again. However, we decided to reef the main sail for the night just in case, but the wind stayed around 6-10 m/s and we were able to sail comfortably through the night. Following day, the wind increased to about 13 m/s and the final part from the northern tip of Denmark to Skagen harbour was motoring against strong wind and current.

On Saturday afternoon we rented bicycles and went to see the long beaches. Compared to Norway, Skagen was quite the opposite: almost flat landscape, straight roads and long sandy beaches. Also the food and alcohol is substantially cheaper than in Norway. We stayed in Skagen for two nights since on Sunday the weath…